I'd give them all up for another foot.

Boy how time flies.  I had every intention of updating my blog after every Broncos preseason game but life moves fast as you all know and here I am finally writing on September 16th.  I don't have a lot of time right now so I'll try to hit the highlights.

I can't even remember now what we did in August but I do remember that we went to Seattle for Labor Day.  Baby girl did wonderful although we robbed her of a few naps.  We woke her up on Friday morning at 6:00am so we could head to the airport and she was awake the entire day.  As we were on our way home from dinner that night we asked her if she was tired and her response was "no nap."  In fact, just the other day she told Angie "I need a nap."  You've got to love having a kid that puts themselves down for a nap.

I had a whole list of things to talk about after watching the disaster that was the Broncos game on Monday  night.  My boss was in town all week so I didn't get a chance to update my blog Tuesday morning which is probably a good thing.  I have probably calmed down a bit since I went to bed mad at 12am Tuesday morning but there are still a few things I need to vent about.  First of all, I bet my blog is probably in high demand after watching holding penalty after holding penalty.  I think I saw first and twenty, first and fifteen more than I saw first and ten.  I know it was the first game but is our offensive line really that bad/dumb that they don't know what holding is?  Also, how bad were the last 24 seconds of the first half?  Orton throws a idiotic interception and then we follow that up with a (just as idiotic) 15 yard penalty.  Since when did we become the Raiders minor league team?  Oakland would have run out the clock but the 15 yard penalty allowed them to take the chance of getting into field goal range and let Sebastian Janikowski taint Jason Elam's NFL record long field goal.  Add to that the Broncos lost by...yup...three points.

One last rant regarding the Broncos.  What happened to that defensive pass rush that looked so strong in the preseason.  Apparently Denver's preseason opponents played their third string offensive lines because Denver couldn't manage to put any pressure on Jason Campbell.  Not that Oakland needed to pass the ball when they could run at will.  When you allow almost 5 yards per carry when you KNOW the offense is going to run the ball you have serious issues.  I still think Denver will win this week but my preseason prediction of  7 wins is now down to 5.

Denver 24 Cincinnati 13

OK one last rant.  I am in the Tebow camp.   Not because I think he's a better QB than Orton but because I think the team responds to him and I think he actually cares.  I also want to see what he can do so we know if we need to draft a QB next year.  Actually, I think it's pretty clear that we do need to and will draft another QB but the question is how early in the draft.

**UPDATE**  I'm a bit of an airhead apparently.  The reason I brought up the worlds's favorite third string QB is because I was a little annoyed with the Denver fans on Monday night.  Yes Orton was having a stinker of a game.  Yes Tebow could have probably avoided a couple sacks.  I'm not so sure the outcome of the game would have been any different but I'm not a big fan of our fans chanting "Tebow Tebow" during the game.  Have a little class and support your starting QB for crying out loud.  Maybe Tebow is the answer but let's let the coaches make the decision.  Oh yeah, to the folks thinking about spending 10 grand on a billboard in LoDo asking for Tebow to be the starter.  Save your money or give it to Tebow's charity.  If Orton continues his poor play and we start 1-3 or 0-4, Tebow will be in soon enough.

CSU vs. CU this weekend.  I'd love to say that the 2-0 Rams are going to crush, and basically end the season of, the 0-2 Buffs but I have not been impressed with the Rams.  The loss of Mychal Sisson is devastating for the defense.  I can see the Buffs running up and down the field over the Rams' defense while Pete Thomas completes 32 passes at 4 yards per completion in garbage time.  I hate to say this but:

Buffs 38 Rams 20

I just heard an interview with Sonny Lubick and they asked him about the game CSU lost to CU 31 - 28 at Folsom Field after the Rams had the ball at the CU 1 foot line with 20 seconds to go.  Instead of kicking the tying FG and sending the game to OT Sonny decided to go for it.  He gave the ball to CU reject Marcus Houston who was promptly stoned at the goal line.  I thought going for it was the right call but I hated the play call.  Anyway, according to the story the team chaplain was trying to comfort Sonny after the game and said something about how he's still got his friends and family.  According to Sonny, his response was "I'd give them all up for another foot."

Have a great weekend.

I've been meaning to update my blog all week but I kept thinking I would wait until Kyle Orton was traded.  It now looks like that line of thinking would have lead me to not update my blog until next season.

In shocking (to me) news the Miami Dolphins decided to sign free agent Matt Moore rather than trade for Orton.  Matt Moore of the 22 career starts and 16 touchdowns against 17 interceptions over a guy that has averaged 20 TDs and 11 INTs over the past three years.  Don't get me wrong, I wanted Miami to take Orton to free up cap space and clear the way for Tebow in Denver, not because I care about the Dolphins record this year.  I'm also not saying that Denver will be better this year with Tebow as QB as compared to Orton.  There is no way Denver is a playoff team with either QB so why not see what we have in Tebow.  Worst case (or maybe best case) we end up with the worst record and draft Andrew Luck next year.  It's only been a few days but I'm about as tired of all the trade talk as I was with Melo.

I am, however, very excited that the lockout is over and that we'll have pro football to watch this winter!  I'm also pretty happy with the Willis McGahee signing (if it is really a done deal) because I'll be happy to have a running back that can get us into the end zone from a yard away, sorry Knowshon.

On Sunday afternoon Angie, baby girl, and I got back from a wonderful 10 day trip to Montana (more about it here.)  I'm sorry to report that I did not exercise at all during the vacation and probably added on the Turner Ten.  Similar to the Freshman Fifteen but done in 10 days rather than one full school year.  Now that I'm back home I guess I need to pick up my running again.  I recently bought the Nike+ sports kit and calibrated it on a one mile run last night.  I'm trying to decide if I want to try running one mile every night or two miles every other night.  I've been doing some reading online and most people seem to be of the opinion that if you don't run for at least 20 - 30 minutes you might as well not do it at all.  I don't see the reasoning in this.  I understand that you don't get to your target heart rate until you've been exercising for 20 minutes but how can people actually say you're better off not doing it at all?  I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that are trying to be good and get some exercise that read these articles/blogs and decide that they might as well stay on the couch and not work out at all.  In my opinion any exercise is good and I think it's great just to get off the couch, even if it's only for 10 minutes.

I'm not sure if Angie's parents read this blog but thanks for being great hosts!  We had a great time and can't wait to see you again in October (if you can make it) or December.

Marathon a Month

When I woke up on Tuesday morning (the day after my 4k) I found it very difficult to muster enough motivation to even pick a day to work out again.  I figured that since I had been running every other day for a month, minus a two day break or two, I would easily be able to keep up the pace of running six to eight miles per week.  Boy was I wrong.  Even though I was planning to use Tuesday as an off day anyway I was happy when I got an email from a friend asking if I'd play on his softball team that night.  I was happy because I knew I could use the excuse of playing softball as exercise and I could put off my day of running for another day (more on the softball game later.)  I finally got on the treadmill Thursday night figuring I'd knock out 20 - 25 minutes no problem.  I was a running expert by now right?  Let me just say that I felt like I was going to die after the first 2 minutes of running.  I ended up alternating two minutes of walking with four minutes of jogging (what is the line between jogging and running?) for a total of 26 minutes and it took all I had not to quit after 6 minutes.  I'm not sure why I had such a rough time.  Maybe it was what I had for supper, maybe it was a letdown after having a goal to train for.  Whatever the reason I was pretty sure I was done with running.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon when I got the itch to get some exercise so I jumped on the treadmill not sure what to expect.  Amazing enough I felt great and, after one minute of walking, I ran/jogged for 20 minutes straight before finishing with two minutes of cool down walking.  Color me confused.  I'm interested to see what the next session is going to be like and I'm also interested to find out when it will be as we are leaving for Montana tomorrow night for vacation.  I hope to get out a few times during vacation but if not I'll have to go at it strong when we get back because my new goal is...a marathon a month!  OK, let me clarify what I mean.  I'm not going to actually run 26.2 miles in one day every month but rather a total of 26.2 miles (or more) per month.  While I was training for the 4k in June I ran 29.33 miles.  I think I actually ran a bit more than than because I absolutely believe that treadmills are not accurate when it comes to distance.  For example, to run an eight minute mile (as I averaged for the 4k) I would have to set the treadmill speed at 7.5.  I'm not sure about you but if I set the treadmill to that speed I will be in a dead sprint and plain dead after two minutes.  I recently bought a Nike+ sport kit so, once I get the shoelace sensor holder, I will see how accurate the treadmill really is.  

Softball.  The image that comes to my mind is a bunch of overweight, middle aged men drinking beer in a dugout arguing about who has to play the field.  Not because they want to play but because they want to sit in the dugout, out of the sun, watching the other guys boot ground balls and pull hamstrings.  Why, if this is the case, was I so nervous to sub for my friend's team on Tuesday night?  Probably because I knew that the team would be made up of athletic guys in their mid 20's who still think they should have made the major leagues even though they didn't make their high school team because the coach had something against them.  Don't get me wrong, my friend's team wasn't like that but I've played in enough leagues to know that other teams are like that.  Teams that have full uniforms including stirrups and eye back, with full time base coaches and a stat keeper.  Luckily the team we played against was at the same as us and were friendly.  I was still nervous not wanting to look like a guy that hasn't played softball in three years.  I played the field fine but my four ground balls (I did beat out the throw on three of the swinging bunts) left a lot to be desired.  I always forget how patient you have to be at the plate and couldn't help but swing before the ball even had a chance to cross the plate.  My legs were also SORE the next day.  I guess my 4k training didn't prepare me for the sprinting around the bases and outfield as well as I thought it would.  My arm and back were also sore from not throwing a ball for so long.  Getting old is not fun.

T minus 26 hours until the vacation starts!

Firecracker 4k

Well, it's finally over.  I just got back from running the firecracker 4k in Erie, CO with a time of 20 minutes and 13 seconds!  I was hoping for 22 - 23 minutes so I'm very happy with my time.  That comes out to an 8 minute 8 second mile and that includes a 40 second walk after 16 minutes.  It helped that for once my run started with a downhill so I wasn't completely dead after the first 10 minutes.  It was, however, rough to climb that hill at the end.  I sure the fact that I was running with other people helped speed up my pace more than when I run alone.

Congrats to everyone that ran the race (not that any of them would ever find themselves reading this blog) and thanks to Angie and Lauren for coming down to watch and cheer me on!

Happy 4th!

One day to go...

Well, tomorrow is the day I've been training for.  The Firecracker 4k.  Although I still have not yet run 2.5 miles without a walking break I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to beat my target time of 23 minutes.  This week I was able to run for 16 minutes before taking a one minute walk break.  Since most of my running has been outside I'm pretty happy with that because the places I've been running have been very hilly and it seems like there is always a steep incline off the bat to zap all my energy right away.  Although I've wanted to start walking sooner I've been pretty good at getting to a mile and a half before my walk break.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow.  Obviously I'd like to make it the entire 2.48 miles without walking but I won't feel disappointed in myself if I have to walk for a minute or two.

I'll do an update Tuesday morning to let you know how I did.  Happy Fourth of July!

Oh Yeah? Well Stake That!

Wow, two posts in the same month and it's only June 20th!

Congrats to the Dallas Mavericks for knocking off the Miami Heat.  Thank goodness we didn't have to see LBJ hoist the championship trophy.

Congrats also to the Boston Bruins for beating the much hated Canucks of Vancouver.  I've always wanted to see Vancouver.  It's too bad the citizens had to burn it to the ground.  Silly Canadians.

I was in Baltimore a couple weeks ago for a conference and was fortunate enough to go to a Baltimore Orioles game with some of Angie's DC family.  I've wanted to see Camden Yards for awhile now and I wasn't disappointed.  It has been a dream of mine for a long time to attend a game at every major league baseball park.  I've been to Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles), Coors Field (Colorado Rockies), the Metrodome (Minnesota Twins), Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), the old Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees),  and Oakland Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland A's).  For awhile I kept my ticket stubs as proof but somewhere along the line I threw most of them away.  As I sit at my desk and look at my Orioles ticket I think I'm going to start over.  Unless I can find some of those stubs I've only got 29 more to go!

I actually kept up on my 4k training while in Baltimore and it's a good thing too because I ate a lot of junk while I was there.  My training is going pretty well and just today I went for a jog near my office and completed a 2.6 mile workout in 25 minutes and 27 seconds.  That might not sound like a very good time but that includes 6 minutes of walking.  I'm still alternating walking and jogging to build up my stamina.  I feel like I'm doing pretty well and am hopefully on pace to be able to jog most (if not all) of the 4k by July 4th.  I'd better be ready because I just registered! Gulp! I would be even further along had I not decided to try to cut my toe off.  How did that happen?  I'll tell you.

Just over a week ago Angie and I finally completed a task we have been talking about since we moved in; putting new trees in our back yard!  We knew that, at some point, the empty lots behind our house would be filled with houses and our view would change from the playground to our neighbors' kitchens and living rooms.  We put an Armstrong Maple along our back fence and three juniper trees along our east fence for added privacy.  As we were putting in the tree stakes for our maple tree I decided to use some of my weight to my advantage.  Each metal stake has two "wings" that stick out near the bottom.  I wasn't sure what they were for so I assumed they were there to push on.  I pushed with my foot a few times and didn't feel the stake move into the ground much so I put all of my body weight onto the wing.  Bad idea.  The metal wing sliced right through my shoe, my sock, and my skin.  Luckily it didn't do any serious damage (I assumed since I could still move my toe) but it was bad enough that Angie thought I should get stitches.  After having my toe numbed a few years ago I vowed to never let another needle touch my toe so I put a band aid on it, wrapped it in tape, and finished the job.  After some moaning and groaning of course!  My toe is mostly healed now although I'll probably have a nasty scar and my 4k training resumed after a six day break.

Back to work, I hope all the fathers out there had a nice Father's Day, I know I did.

Qdoba to 4k

Wow, I can't believe it has been three and a half months since my last post.  Sorry about that.  A lot has happened since my last post so I'll try to summarize the major events in one sentence each (in no particular order.)

Nuggets finally traded Melo, made the playoffs, and then exited in the first round just like they did when Melo was here.

The Broncos had a pretty good draft and addressed some of the issues on the defensive side of the ball, now let's just hope there is a season.

The Rockies got off to the best start in the majors and just finished off the worst month in the majors and there is much panic at 20th and Blake.

My baby girl turned 2 and is as cute and as sweet as ever.

I turned 33 and Angie turned...29...and she is as cute and as sweet as ever.

The folks are still in Senegal and things seem to be going well for them although we still miss them like crazy.

Two weddings in April, one in MT and the other in MN, and the weather held up for the most part.

I think that about sums up the past few months, now I'll try to do a better job of updating in the future.

I have tentatively decided to do the Erie Firecracker 4k on July 4th.  Until about 5 minutes ago I thought it was a 5k so now my training just got 1k easier!  My idea was to start training on June 4th so I'd have exactly one month to get ready but I cheated and actually started today.  I am starting off easy and combined walking and jogging (9 and 12 laps respectively) for 1.5 miles.  There is a rec center by my office and it has a running track that says 14 laps = 1 mile but i'm not quit sure I believe it because I finished the 1.5 miles in just under 18 minutes.  This means I could finish the 4k in 30 minutes with a lot of walking.  Obviously my goal is to do it all without running and I think that, by July, I should be able to do it without any issues.  I do not, however, plan to change my diet much so I'll continue with my Qdoba and sushi (not on the same day) lunches.  I wouldn't want anyone to confuse me for a healthy person!  Stay tuned for more updates as my training continues!